We had a wonderful day today at Oakfield park as part of Dawn’s Forest Friday group where we get together and learn about nature while going on a walk through the woods. It’s always a lot of fun for the boys and myself – I always have my trusty iPhone and rubber band macro handy (so much easier than my DSLR for these kinds of things!).

Warning: I took many photos and most of them are included! So fun!

Since reading Gathering Moss I find I am more in love with mosses if that’s possible.
Lady Slippers! I love Nova Scotia for its abundance of this beautiful orchid – you just have to know where to look… I am a big rock lover and in turning one over I found some busy ants. I think I made them busy by exposing them! They hurriedly carried all the babes into their underground home. Mama was a big one and was the first to disappear down the hole! British Soldier lichen Irises – I just love wildflowers! Spiders are the coolest.  Dawn created this super fun exercise where we place masking tape (or duct tape) on our wrist or onto a sheet of paper sticky side out. Then we find flowers, acorns, whatever strikes our fancy and stick them on.   I enjoyed this so much that I wore my ‘bracelets’ into the grocery store and Tim Horton’s afterward!Lightening bugs mating! Summer is the season of love…! 😉
This guy was hanging around the lovers. I dare say he was quite the voyer! I bought a bird/nature journal a couple of weeks ago. I could have used a basic journal but this one has some great quotes and nest illustrations in it so I couldn’t help myself. I think I will use it for a flower press too and then write down what happened on that specific day. 🙂 A wee little daddy longlegs. I love this guy. He hung out on my thumb for a long time. We played together: I would gently raise his leg and he would hold it there. I’d raise it a little further and he’d still hold it there. I’d lower it down and he’d again hold it there. I think he was humouring me (simple human…). Mushrooms! Love mushrooms! I haven’t checked the type of this one yet but had to show a couple of photos for details of the gills… …and the webbing across the top… The kids became completely absorbed in playing in the woods and surrounding field – as kids should and it makes me sooo happy! Xman was in the woods and found this dragonfly just coming out of its nymph skin. I have never seen this before. It was THE COOLEST thing I’ve seen in a while. I’m sure I will see something just as cool tomorrow because Nature is that way but for today, this was THE BESTEST. Beautiful life. If you aren’t familiar with Dawn’s Forest Friday and are in the Halifax, Nova Scotia region you can find out all about it here.

She also has a workshop coming up on her and Annie’s Mud Puddles to Meteors site that I am so excited about called Mud Puddles Summer Nature Camp. It’s an online workshop so you can be anywhere in the world and still participate. It’s gonna be awesome! Hope to see you there!